UK Forces ‘not up to defending Israel from missile attacks’

UK Armed Forces ‘not up to defending Israel from missile attacks’

Although Britain is able to shoot down cruise missiles and drones – and did so during a previous Iranian attack on Israel in April – experts warned that it struggled to deal with the more advanced ballistic missiles used on Tuesday.

Powered initially by a rocket, these weapons are faster and fly on a trajectory that arches upwards and can leave the atmosphere, making them more challenging to attack.

Iran is thought to have invested heavily in ballistic missiles over the past decade, building up a stockpile of more than 3,000 of the weapons, according to US intelligence estimates.

On Tuesday, when Iran used the missiles in its attack, the UK’s Typhoon jets based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus did not shoot any down. Instead, Britain was only able to help monitor incoming weapons and “did not engage any targets”, the MoD said.

The US sent three of its Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers close to Israel’s coast and fired advanced interceptor missiles over land to help defeat the incoming Iranian threat.

The UK is planning to make its Type-45 destroyers one of the main defences against ballistic missiles, using new Aster 30 interceptor weapons that were approved by Sir Ben during his time as defence secretary. However, these have not yet been developed.

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